Zaftig Brewery Hopes to Launch Before Year’s End

We’ve written about plenty of breweries in 2013, and we thought we were all done… but there’s one more looking to beat the buzzer and get up and running before the end of the year: Zaftig Brewing. This startup is looking to enter the local scene with a focus on big bold in-your-face flavors as they get their taproom and growler filling station operational in the next few weeks.

We spoke with Zaftig co-Founder Brent Halsey to find out more about the new brewery. Our full Q&A can be found below:

Q: First, can you tell us a bit about your personal/professional background as it relates to beer and brewing?

A: We have around five years of home brewing experience, but our professional backgrounds vary from IT to logistics. In addition to home brewing, we’ve taken pride in tasting fellow craft brewer’s best and have collected an impressive bottle collection to show.

Q: What drew you to wanting to operate a brewery business?

A: Per the bottle collection mentioned above, we’ve found that we really like big beers that are bold and stand out; Avery Samael’s, Dogfish Head 120 minute IPA and World Wide Stout, Alchemist Heady Topper, Russian River Pliny the Elder and Three Floyd’s Zombie dust to name a few. We’ve taken much inspiration from these beers and their breweries and felt that we’d like to open a brewery that specialized in delivering ‘Full bodied beers’, thus Zaftig Brewing.

Q: Where is your brewery be located?

A: We’re currently located off of Schrock Road, just west of the Budweiser plant. We felt that driving by one of the worlds largest breweries every day would be good inspiration to get us started. Well, that and the fact that the location was prime for self distribution and the rent was reasonable.

Q: What specific types/styles of beers does Zaftig specialize in?

A: Our focus is on bold, full bodied beers. We currently have a stout, amber, imperial IPA, and a hybrid between an ESB and IPA (we have names, but we’re still working through getting them approved prior to releasing).

Q: What sort of timeline to you have to launching, and what will your brewery feature upon opening?

A: If you had asked when we were launching in October, I would have said November, but we’re currently hoping to be fully permitted by December 20. Our application has been processing since July, and once that’s done (hopefully this week based on the feedback received) we will be calling for our final inspection with the State of Ohio to receive our final permits. Upon opening, we’ll have a small area set aside for tasting and we’ll have several taps for filling growlers as well as bottles for sale on premise. Our primary focus will be distributing kegs locally, however we hope to host several tastings to help launch Zaftig.

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Walker is the co-founder of ColumbusUnderground.com and TheMetropreneur.com along with his wife and business partner Anne Evans. Walker has turned local media from a hobby into a full time career over the past decade and serves on multiple boards and committees throughout the community.

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Walker is the co-founder of ColumbusUnderground.com and TheMetropreneur.com along with his wife and business partner Anne Evans. Walker has turned local media from a hobby into a full time career over the past decade and serves on multiple boards and committees throughout the community.